I don’t know how long the fight lasted. I don’t know how many players I killed or helped to kill but when it was all said and done, we stood victorious, 18 survivors. I would call this a roaring success, especially considering how badly we were outnumbered on both sides of the fight.
Congratulations! You’ve reached Level 13!
+1 to bonus Holy Spells, +1 Intellect, +1 Charisma
The message surprised me. I was more surprised after dismissing the message when a second popped up.
Congratulations! You’ve reached Level 14!
+1 to bonus Holy Spells, +1 Intellect, +1 Charisma
Just how much experience did I get from that battle? Unable to stop my curiosity, I opened up my messages. The notifications went on and on for pages, I had 84 kill notifications, most of them shared experience worth anywhere from a few hundred experience points to a few thousand, but it all added up. However, there were only two that really mattered to me.
You helped killed Hurtz People Lvl 63 and claimed his current level progress and 5% of his gold. Your share has been awarded: +234,874-Experience and 21-Gold, 8-Silver, 99-Copper
You have killed Pwn Star69 Lvl 14 and claimed his current level progress and 5% of his gold. You have been awarded +102,987-Experience and 5-Gold, 4-Silver, 22-Copper
I don’t know why Pwn was a solo kill and all the others were shared but it didn’t matter all too much. I was more interested in how much experience Hurtz had. There were around 30 of us left when he finally died, that meant he was over 7-million experience points into his current level if we all got an equal share. It made me wonder just how much experience it would take to go from level 63 to level 64 if that 7-million wasn’t enough.
Looking around, I finally noticed I wasn’t the only one that gained several levels. Most of my group was level 13 or 14 now except for Bushy who was level 12. I also took note that my group was probably the only group in which all our members survived. I saw most of Icyhot’s people, except for their actual leader and Duncan.
“Alright,” Olaf started loudly. “I know everyone is excited about the win and you should be. But our work is not done yet. Start bringing those you can back to life, we’ll need all the forces we can muster for the next phase of the operation.”
It took a few minutes, but the healers were able to bring back 10 players, though most of them were not overly happy about the lost experience points.
Olaf started speaking once he was sure no more could be brought back. “We need to get the four cannons that survived the fight, the prisoners and any cannon parts we can salvage back to Hammerton.” A big task, we had more than twenty Anvilton Dwarves we took prisoner when we captured the cannons. Cannons that a few of the enemy players decided should be destroyed, thank you spellcasters, I hope you all die in a fire.
Olaf continued, “I need one group to go meet our allies at the graveyard and make sure they head to the city and not back to here. And finally, another group will need to split off and see about taking the battering ram, assuming Hammerton’s forces haven’t already.”
“We’ll lead the cannons back and prisoners,” said Rock, stepping up in the absence of Icyhot.
“Thanks, Rock,” said Olaf, grateful for the help.
“We’ll go meet our allies. My girlfriend seems to be among them. If I’m not there she might well kill me out of spite,”
The group ended up splitting almost perfectly in thirds, my group plus Evile Lynn and Myst Livs, which brought us to nine.
“Remember, we want to try to capture the battering ram, we’ll only destroy it as a last resort,” said Olaf once the gate was in sight. “Stealth group, go,” he ordered softly.
I activated my ‘Stealth’ skill, turning near invisible as I approached the battering ram from behind. The battering ram was a large thing, probably twenty feet long and stood about eight feet tall at the peak of the canopy. It was suspended over the ram and the Dwarves operating the it, providing them at least a little cover and defense. The canopy itself appeared to be made of shields welded together, the kite shields forming an almost scaled surface. Out of the near one hundred they started with, there were maybe a dozen Shale Dwarves left underneath the canopy on either side of the wooden mast used to bang at the door. They looked absolutely exhausted, struggling to move the heavy wooden beam, it appeared a few of them had simply collapsed. Most of the others were dead by the look of it, either perforated with arrows or burned beyond recognition by the boiling oil that had been poured down onto them.
Then I saw another detail, there were chains around one ankle and one wrist. These Dwarves were not here by choice. I saw the flash of a dagger about to kill one of them when I cried out, “Wait, stop, stop!”
The dagger stopped and Evile dropped out of ‘Stealth’. “What? What is it? A trap?” she asked, taking several small jumps backward away from the Dwarf she was about to kill.
“They are prisoners,” I said, rushing forward only to jump back as arrows impacted the dirt in front of me. “I’m with Hammerton,” I said, shouting up at the wall and putting on my ‘Local Hero’ title.
“Sorry about that,” a Dwarven brogue called down to me.
“All of you, hold your fire!” I shouted up at them, the pinging of arrows on metal suddenly halted.
“Heath, start freeing them,” I said, looking for my stealthy friend. “Evile, help if you can.”
I then turned back toward where Olaf was and waved, signaling for him to come.
“Open the gates,” I called up.
“Sorry, can’t do that,” the same Dwarf called back.
“Then get someone who can!” I shouted back. After that, I moved to start helping Heath and Evile with unlocking the Dwarven prisoners.
“No,” one of the Dwarves protested weakly. “Our . . . families . . . hostages . . . please . . . kill us . . . they . . . are . . . watching.”
“Heath,” I said, looking to the Thief. “I don’t suppose you have an illusion for this?”
“I might, but we need to group them together,” Heath said, still focused on freeing the Dwarves.
“Please,” the Dwarf pleaded again.
“Trust me,” I said, hoping he would against all odds.
The Dwarf looked me in the eyes before finally nodding.
It didn’t take long to free a dozen Dwarves. It went faster when Olaf arrived with the others and started to disassemble the locks rather than pick them.
The two dozen shale Dwarves looked terrible. They had clearly taken a beating before being chained to the battering ram.
“Line them up, facing Anvilton,” ordered Heath.
“Heath, what are you doing?” Olaf asked.
“What Bye-bye asked me to,” Heath replied. “Trust me, just get the gate opened.”
Olaf nodded and moved toward the gate and began yelling up at the ramparts.
“Bye-bye, your pigs, can you summon them just in front of the Dwarves?” Heath requested.
I nodded. “Just say when.”
“I know you’ve had a rough go of it and I’m sorry to ask you to do more. But when I tell Bye-bye to cast his spell, you all need to fall to the ground and play dead, and don’t move until I say so, don’t even twitch. Can you do that for me?” Heath asked.
“Aye, falling down ought to be easy at this point,” one of the least beaten down Shale Dwarves replied.
“Good, Bye-bye, now,” Heath said, starting his spell.
I channeled the spell, targeting the area in front of the Dwarves, letting the drove of spectral swine charge back and forth over the area. An area that suddenly had two dozen Dwarves getting trampled to death. I almost broke the spell, but I needed to trust Heath. When my spell ended, the Shale Dwarf prisoners were all dead.
“Drag the bodies inside, they deserve a proper burial,” said Heath, sweating and barely able to stand. “Olaf, push that battering ram through the gate and out of the way.”
> Olaf nodded solemnly. It seemed he had picked up on the plan and was playing his part.
“You heard the man, these Dwarves deserve to be buried among the stone as is our way,” barked the Master Sergeant, I didn’t know when he arrived, but I was glad for the help as dozens of Dwarves marched forward, placing each Dwarf on a shield.
“Take them to the barracks,” Olaf said, earning an odd look from the Master Sergeant. “Please.”
Master Sergeant Murdock nodded once. “To the barracks, one of the empty training rooms should suit our needs.”
I saw Heath about to collapse and rushed to his side to help him stay upright. “Thanks,” he said, the lack of accent suggested just how tired he really was. “Don’t suppose I could borrow your mana crystal? This illusion is a pain to maintain.”
I was shocked by that statement. He was keeping the illusion up. I handed over my crystal no questions asked. I even took his crystal from him and began pushing my mana into it, ready to trade with him once we got inside.
The Bronze Dwarves of Hammerton showed a great deal of honor toward their enemies that surprised all of us. Each Dwarf stopping to salute the fallen enemy. I was glad the barracks was as close as it was, Heath was sucking mana like a leech in an effort to maintain his illusion. As soon as the last ‘corpse’ was through the door of the barracks training room, Heath breathed a sigh of relief, his mana already beginning to refill of its own accord.
“It’s safe now,” Heath said tiredly.
It was quite the surprise for the few Hammerton Dwarves when all the Shale Dwarves suddenly started breathing and a few of them sat up, still looking worse for the wear but alive.
“What in the name of the God Ivaldi is going on here?” Master Sergeant Murdock yelled.
“At ease,” Olaf snapped, seeing some of the Hammerton soldiers reaching for their weapons. “It was a ruse. We needed to convince Anvilton they were dead. Their families are being held hostage. They didn’t have a choice. But now that Anvilton thinks they are dead, their families should be safe, at least for a little while.”
“At ease, soldiers,” Master Sergeant Murdock echoed Olaf’s order. “A cunning plan. But you do realize you just brought two dozen enemies to Hammerton inside the city, right?”
“We are not Hammerton’s enemy,” the healthiest of the Dwarves stated, mustering all the strength he could to stand and address the Master Sergeant. “I am Camber Elias, disgraced Major of the Anvilton Defense Force, and more importantly, I am a member of the Anvilton Rebellion. All of us, are . . . were members of the Anvilton Rebellion.”
“Well, this just got a lot more complicated,” said Murdock, tugging absentmindedly on his beard.
He didn’t know the half of it.
Chapter 17
It took over an hour to get all my fellow adventurers safely into Hammerton along with the captured cannons, cannon parts, and captured prisoners. Rather than celebrate the victory, the Hammerton soldiers ushered all the adventurers that participated in the battle into an empty training room within the barracks and told us to wait.
Two long, boring hours passed. In that time, I met most of the other players, got some basic information, class, level and that kind of thing. I heard a lot of embellished stories about the battles that were fought and their victories.
A group of fighter types, led by a
Watching the training players for a minute, they were training to raise their strength, stamina, and endurance. They were doing pushups, sit-ups, and squats. Seeing them work on their stats like that made me cringe just to think about it and what it was going to take to raise my own stats.
I had gained 4 levels today and had yet to gain a single stat point . . . intentionally anyway. I did gain +1-Strength, +2-Dexterity, +3-Endurance, +6-Stamina, +2-Intellect, and +3-Wisdom from all the continuous fighting, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the 40 total points I needed to gain. I was also curious why my gains were so small for some and larger for others. A quick check of my stats gave me a hint.
I was given a bonus to experience until level 10 as a sort of ‘sorry for the late delivery’ from Seed Inc when my Seedpod was three months late. Checking my stats, the only ones that had not reached the level 10 cap was Stamina, Intellect, and Wisdom. It might explain why stamina gained 6 points, taking it right to the level 10 cap and no further. If I was right, then that meant the bonus experience I was given for the delayed delivery of my Seedpod had finally stopped, at least for those stats. That meant once I got Intellect and Wisdom to the level 10 cap their growth would grind to a halt. I worried about just how much grinding it was going to take to increase those stats. Long story short, I was going to be doing nothing but training for the next few days if I wanted to hit my level caps for those stats.
I continued exploring the training room, mostly meeting the other players, there were 67 of us in total between level 7 at the lowest and level 22 at the highest. After that, it turned boring fast, it made me wish I had a book to read, both to learn a new skill and to increase my Intellect and Wisdom stats while I had downtime.
“Sorry for the wait,” said the Master Sergeant, finally entering the room and breaking the monotony of waiting. “It has taken some time to sort everything out. We will begin interviewing each of you for details of what happened. But for now, Olaf Crushhammer, Micaela Crushhammer, Bye-bye Jacko, Rose Thorns, Babies Breath, and Heath Rickards, please come with me.”
“Why them?” Nico Nocht asked loudly, he was the same player that questioned Olaf’s leadership earlier. I caught Bushy from the corner of my eye looking as if she was about to object if Nico hadn’t beaten her to it.
“Are they not the masterminds behind your endeavors? Are you going to dispute their achievements?” Master Sergeant Murdock asked, eyeing the young hothead.
“No, it’s just . . . I want to know what’s going on. We all do,” Nico protested, earning several voices of agreement.
“And answers will come, I promise. Today was simply unprecedented and we are still trying to figure out everything that happened. As these six were in the thick of it all, they are who we are starting with,” Murdock explained.
There was a general murmur of impatience, which I understood. They had been stuck in this room for hours and from the sound of it, it would be hours more before everything was resolved for the day. I wanted to cringe when I looked at the in-game clock, it was almost 10:00 in the evening already.
“Maybe you could have some food brought,” I suggested, maybe it would ease the irritation a little.
“I am sorry for not thinking of it sooner. I will have one of my men bring food and ale immediately,” Murdock replied, quickly signaling the closest of his soldiers to do just that.
We were met outside of the training room by several soldiers and much to my surprise, Gras, who simply nodded to us. As a group, we followed Murdock and a handful of soldiers back out of the barracks and through the city. Once we reached the entrance to Mardi’s home, we took the path to the right leading down into the heart of the city, a place we had yet to visit. The deeper we went, the more industrialized the buildings began to look, I thought they looked more steampunk than anything with all the bronze pipes coming out of the buildings and burrowing into the rocks. My guess was they were smokestacks that led to a central vent somewhere deep in the mountain.
“In you go,” said Murdock when we reached the bottom of the ramp and what I could only guess was the main forge. “And brace yourselves . . . she is a might . . . touchy.”
So, it was like that, huh? We save her city and Mardi has the nerve to be angry with
us.
“Hold your heads high,” Micaela said. “Remember, we did the right thing no matter what Mardi says.”
“Just follow the hammering,” Murdock said as a parting warning, quickly retreating a moment later.
With that, we all straightened slightly as we entered the forge. I kind of expected it by now, the wash of heat that came from a well-powered forge. The hammering Murdock spoke of was ringing clearer as we went deeper into the forge. Eventually, the path Murdock directed us down emerged into a large cavern, at the end of which was a furnace with what looked to be lava flowing through it. Also, by this point, the sound of hammer hitting metal had grown very loud and based on the rapidity of the strikes, it was angry hammering.
I braced for the angry Duchess hammering at a sheet of metal with all her might, as if she was trying to vanquish all her anger, frustration and fear. Realizing we had arrived, Mardi looked up, her face slightly tearstained, every now and then I heard the hiss of one of her tears hitting the molten hot metal. Suddenly, my own anger against her vanished, replaced by guilt for thinking so poorly of her. Mardi was my friend, and sure, she didn’t show us the most respect when we arrived in her city, but she was still our friend and deserved the benefit of the doubt.
Thank the Goddess for Micaela, the woman rushed forward, wrapping Mardi in a hug, the Dwarven woman dropping her tools and hugging Micaela right back, muffled recriminations and ‘I am sorry’ was repeated frequently by the Duchess.
It took a while for the Duchess to calm down and return to breathing normally.
“I am sorry,” Mardi repeated once again. “I should have listened to you. I thought my people could handle it. We just were not prepared for such deceit. You adventurers really are something else,” she said, sniffling at that end.
“Yeah, some of us are rather unsavory,” said Olaf. “But there are also plenty of good ones.”
“I know, you six have proved as much many times over,” said Mardi. “I should have trusted you more.”
The Mountain Valley War Page 29